


Blood Moon Feast

by CatKing_Catkin



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Bonding, Cooking, Developing Friendships, Fluff, Food, Friendship, Gen, Headcanon, Hopeful Ending, Introspection, Kakariko Village, Selectively Mute Link, Speculation, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 12:47:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11357826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: The Blood Moon is rising once again, and Link hastens to take advantage of the beneficial effect its bloody red light has on his cooking. Why does food cooked during a Blood Moon always taste better than food that isn't? No one seems to know, but Link is happy to spread the word of this grand discovery anyway.Especially within Kakariko Village, everyone slowly becomes more willing to overlook the strangeness of Link's actions, and the fear of the Blood Moon, in order to share in the delicious results of Link's cooking on such nights.Link knows that he isn't strong enough to beat Ganon yet. But if he can give people more reasons to celebrate instead of fear in the meantime, that seems like a worthwhile endeavor, too.





	Blood Moon Feast

**Author's Note:**

> Like most of my Breath of the Wild fic is shaping up to be, this was inspired by me wondering just what my actions through Link must look like to the NPCs. Most of them seem to know that Blood Moons are a thing. They must know what they mean. And so I figured that the sight of Link sprinting towards a cooking pot instead of towards the nearest shelter when one starts rising might seem a little strange to them.
> 
> And really, why *does* food cooked during a Blood Moon always turn out better?
> 
> Also, I just love Kakariko Village. It's one of my favorite places in the game, partly because of its people and especially because of Cottla and Koko. So I wanted to give them a bit of a shout out.

A red moon was rising over Kakariko Village. It wasn’t the first time, and even with the Champion having returned to the world most of them couldn’t quite believe that it would ever be the last.

Most everyone hustled inside just a little faster when they saw the red glow rising over the mountains – except for Impa’s guards, of course, and Steen who would stubbornly keep at his sword practicing. It was routine by now. Blood moons were a fact of life, as regular as the turning of the seasons and destructive in their own way as hurricanes. Even if buildings were left standing, just as many lives were lost as a result.

Just recently, however, the people of Kakariko Village had found themselves with something to break up the monotony and terror of these occasional, horrible nights. Even if most of them were still struggling with the idea that even the Champion could bring an end to all this, there was no denying that his presence brightened up the place while the red moon rose.

Tonight was no different. No one heard Link coming, not at first, but Dorian and Cado saw his shadow suddenly fall across the grass. Looking up revealed Link soaring gently down with the aid of his paraglider from the cliff that overlooked Cado’s house. He whipped the paraglider shut when he was still ten feet up off the ground, and dropped lightly to land in a crouch just a few feet away from the two men.

They didn’t bother commenting by now on the slashes gouged out of Link’s clothes, the blood that stained the legs of his pants. “Good evening, Master Link,” was all Dorian said instead. Link looked over at him and offered a nod. The briefest smile was barely visible beneath his hood. And then he got to his feet and took off at a run towards the communal cooking pot that rested beside High Spirits Produce.

*  *  *

The moon rose higher. Link found the cooking fire extinguished from an earlier storm. He let out a soft growl of frustration, tore off his pack, and went digging through his pack for more flint.

“Here!” said a small, bright voice from just beside him.

Link looked over sharply, and smiled rather more easily when he saw Cottla standing there beside her sister. The younger girl was holding out a fistful of flint shards, smiling proudly. Link nodded his thanks to her, took the flint in one hand, and drew his newly scavenged sword with the other. The girls stepped well back as he brought one forcibly in conjunction with the other, so that sparks showered down onto the wood. It wasn’t much more work from there to coax a fire to bloom beneath the pot.

“Time to cook?” asked Koko.

Link offered her a thumbs up before he went back to digging through his bag. Koko took advantage of the unsaid offer to go first. She stepped forward, pulling milk and carrots and salt and various other herbs and spices out of her own satchel, and set to work combining them all. Their father folded his arms, leaned against the wall of the shop, and watched with a strained, worried sort of smile.

Once the soup was boiling nicely, Koko spooned it out of the big pot and into a smaller one that would keep warm beside the fire. Link had just finished setting the last of the fish out to roast on their skewers. With quick, deft fingers darting in and out of an increasingly empty pack, he went to work setting as much as he could onto the hot stone surface. A variety of truffles, mushrooms, and radishes steamed away on a broad, flat leaf. Rice and lean meat from some overly aggressive animal simmered in the remains of the cream soup. Honey oozing from the three apples it was coating mixed with and seasoned the lot. And in the very last bit of space that the pot had provided, Koko helped Link keep some eggs piled high into an increasingly fluffy omelet.

All the while, the red moon rose higher and higher. Yet all the while, the smells from their cooking increasingly pervaded the silent town. Since this wasn’t the first time this had happened, everyone knew what it meant. And just like last time, the smells eventually became too good to resist. The other townspeople came slowly out of their homes, one by one, each bringing their own ingredients in hopes of a turn at the cooking pot.

Koko maintained that the Champion had once told her that food tasted best when cooked under the light of a blood moon. Link hardly ever said anything, so none of the adults in the village could be entirely certain this was true. Yet there was no denying that _something_ brought him racing into town every time a Blood Moon rose. So there must have been some truth to it.

Fortunately, Link had an unmatched efficiency where cooking was concerned. By the time Olkin and Mellie arrived with laden arms, Link was already taking his own dishes out of the pot in preparation for more. But when he saw them, he stepped back and motioned for them to go ahead instead. He knew by then that they would save him some of the stuffed pumpkin they always cooked, and so didn’t protest. When Steen and Trissa arrived shortly after, and Steen looked about to kick up a fuss at his old rival beating him there, Link simply rolled his eyes and jabbed a thumb at the fish skewers free for the taking. The trout was already cooked and steaming, the skin crisped and gleaming. Just this once and just for tonight, the old man proved willing to eat rather than argue, and his wife was grateful for it as she ate with him.

Steen would never share his carrot cake with Olkin and Mellie. Olkin would never share his special recipe for fried wild greens with Steen and Trissa. They would both share with Link, however, and Link would pass off to the other one what he couldn’t eat or pack away. He let himself believe it was probably some kind of progress.

Rola and Claree turned up just in time to enjoy some of the egg pudding that Cado made with some eggs donated from his beloved Cuccos. Everyone, however, knew to save at least a little of everything for when Impa and Paya finally made their way over from the house on the lake.

In the end, Link didn’t have to get involved any further. He just sat back on the edge of the crowd, chewing his way with slow, steady determination through a meat and mushroom skewer. Rice was on his chin and honey was on his fingers. His stomach was full and his pack was even fuller. Yet the people of Kakariko Village showed no signs of slowing down or going home. Once again, he’d gotten a nice little party going even as the Blood Moon finally reached its peak overhead. He didn’t know why food cooked during the night like this always tasted better. He just knew that it did, and everyone else in Kakariko Village seemed to know it by now, too.

Link felt the moment when it came, like a shove to the chest. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let the feeling pass over him. He felt the moment when the wave of Calamity Ganon’s malevolence finished passing through the land, bringing back every beast he and others had slain over the past couple of weeks. He and others would do their best to kill them again, of course, but it was a stark reminder that there was ultimately only one thing that would keep this cycle from continuing. There was ultimately only one thing he had to do.

As his recently failed attempt to take out that Lynel up on Shatterback Point had driven home to him, however, it was one thing he just wasn’t strong enough to do yet.

So in the meantime, Link was resolved to do what he could. He kept the roads a little safer, he kept rupees and goods moving from town to town, and he kept his head held high when the sky turned red. He made baked honey apples while Calamity Ganon raged in his cage. Ultimately, Link hoped, he gave people a little less reason to be afraid.

Link sat there on the edge of the crowd, with Cottla curled up and dozing on one side of him. Her sticky fingers grasped a sleepy hold of one edge of his cape. Koko was still at the cooking pot, using a soup ladle to keep the crowd honest.

Link sat and he watched the hustle and bustle of Kakariko Village continue on around him, its people once again heedless of the fading malevolence in the air. He watched a new little tradition blooming in the dark.

Here and now, a little less fear didn’t seem like such a small thing after all.


End file.
